We were in a northern Italian town called Gargnano in a 13th century convent founded by St. Francis of Assisi. It was Franciscan friars who introduced the cultivation of lemons on the shores of Lake Garda, whereupon the region became known as the Riviera dei Limoni.
As we followed our guide, Merlin, we hiked to one of the remaining masonry greenhouses known as limonaie that once lined the lake shore. With an annual harvest of 20 million lemons for export, the lemons of the Riviera dei Limoni provided extraordinary wealth to the region for multiple generations.
